Fewer Hospital Errors Save 50,000 Patients Nationwide

WASHINGTON — Fewer patients are dying and billions are being saved in health care costs due to safer hospital environments, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

From 2010 to 2013, an estimated 50,000 fewer patients died in hospitals, and the U.S. health care system was able to save $12 billion as a result of a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions. Preliminary estimates show that in total, hospital patients experienced 1.3 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2013. This represents a 17 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions over the three-year period.

HHS said in a statement that these results occurred during a period of concerted attention by hospitals to reduce adverse events and that the Affordable Care Act also played a role. Medicare payment incentives to improve the quality of care, for example, helped achieve the results, as did the HHS Partnership for Patients initiative. The initiative targets a specific set of hospital-acquired conditions, and public and private health care partners are working together to identify best practices and solutions to reduce readmissions.

Hospital-acquired conditions include adverse drug events, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections, pressure ulcers and surgical site infections, among others.

“Today’s results are welcome news for patients and their families,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell in a statement. “These data represent significant progress in improving the quality of care that patients receive while spending our health care dollars more wisely. HHS will work with partners across the country to continue to build on this progress.”

The American Hospital Association commended HHS for its commitment to track and encourage patient-care improvement.

“Never before have we been able to bring so many hospitals, clinicians and experts together to share in a common goal — improving patient care,” said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, in a statement. “We have built an ‘infrastructure of improvement’ that will aid hospitals and the health care field for years to come and has spurred the results you see today. We applaud HHS for having the vision to support these efforts and look forward to our continued partnership to keep patients safe and healthy.”

HHS has relied on its Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to analyze the incidence of avoidable hospital-acquired conditions. The agency has been comparing rates to those in 2010 to use as a baseline estimate of deaths and excess health care costs. The last time HHS released results from AHRQ was in May 2014, when the data showed improvements for 2012.

“AHRQ has developed the evidence base and many of the tools that hospitals have used to achieve this dramatic decline in patient harms,” said AHRQ Director Richard Kronick, Ph.D, in a statement. “Additionally, AHRQ’s work in measuring adverse events, performed as part of the Partnership for Patients, made it possible to track the rate of change in these harms nationwide and chart the progress being made.”